its touch, the presence of human sympathy, perhaps, had lightened
that hard hour.

When they had made him ready for the grave, John lay in state for
half an hour, a thing which seldom happened in that busy place; but
a universal sentiment of reverence and affection seemed to fill the
hearts of all who had known or heard of him; and when the rumor of
his death went through the house, always astir, many came to see
him, and I felt a tender sort of pride in my lost patient; for he
looked a most heroic figure, lying there stately and still as the
statue of some young knight asleep upon his tomb. The lovely
expression which so often beautifies dead faces soon replaced the
marks of pain, and I longed for those who loved him best to see him
when half an hour's acquaintance with Death had made them friends.
As we stood looking at him, the ward master handed me a letter,
saying it had been forgotten the night before. It was John's letter,
come just an hour too late to gladden the eyes that had longed and
looked for it so eagerly; yet he had it; for, after I had cut some
brown locks for his mother, and taken off the ring to send her,
telling how well the talisman had done its work, I kissed this good
son for her sake, and laid the letter in his hand, still folded as
when I drew my own away, feeling that its place was there, and
making myself happy with the thought, even in his solitary place in
the "Government Lot," he would not be without some token of the love
which makes life beautiful and outlives death. Then I left him, glad
to have known so genuine a man, and carrying with me an enduring
memory of the brave Virginia blacksmith, as he lay serenely waiting
for the dawn of that long day which knows no night.